How is Hurricane Florence likely to affect Charlotte?

Chances are growing that Charlotte will get a deluge of rain and high winds this weekend as the projected inland track of Hurricane Florence shifted to the south and west.

The National Hurricane Center now projects 4 to 10 inches of rain for Charlotte and much of Western North Carolina over the next week, likely starting Friday, even as Florence's strength waned slightly Wednesday afternoon to a Category 3 storm. Projections for Charlotte were about 2 inches of rain just a day ago. The North Carolina mountains could see 3 to 6 inches of rain.

Florence could deliver 6.3 inches of rain to Charlotte's airport, including 2.75 inches on Sunday, the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C., said in an update Wednesday night of projected rainfall totals from the storm.

Other parts of the Charlotte area could see even more rain, including 7.45 inches in Rock Hill, 6.76 inches in Monroe and 6.6 inches in Gastonia, NWS meteorologist Doug Outlaw told The Charlotte Observer in an interview..

Columbia, S.C., meanwhile, could see 8 inches, Outlaw said.

The storm's projected track remained mostly unchanged Wednesday evening, with forecasters predicting it will lumber across South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday after coming ashore between Wilmington and the Myrtle Beach area.

The rain expected in Charlotte could flood neighborhoods in floodplains and cover roads near creeks, which in the city tend to fill quickly after hard rain. But Charlotte remains outside the zones where the hurricane center expects flash flooding to occur -- risks are highest on North Carolina's southern coast, which is expected to get 20 to 30 inches of rain.

The hurricane center projects that wind speeds in Charlotte will most likely stay at the low end of tropical storm force, which is the range from 39 mph to 73 mph, or lower. Increased winds are expected to be apparent by Friday morning.

There's a 59 percent chance that sustained winds will reach 39 mph sometime over the next five days, the center says. The chance of stronger winds is much lower: a 16 percent chance that winds will reach 58 mph and a 3 percent chance they will hit hurricane strength, 74 mph.

Duke Energy said Wednesday it expects 1 million to 3 million of its Carolinas customers to lose power during and after the storm. In Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will be closed Thursday and Friday and shelters will be opened for hurricane evacuees. Fire Chief Reginald Johnson warned residents to "be prepared to be without power for three to four days."

The "probable" forecast path for Florence as of 5 p.m. Wednesday showed the storm shifting farther toward the southern North Carolina coast and the northern half of the South Carolina coast, with the forecast cone stretching into Georgia, Western North Carolina and Tennessee, according to the NHC.

Once it makes landfall, the current forecast path shows the storm making a turn even farther south toward southern South Carolina and Georgia around Saturday morning.

"Impacts from heavy rainfall due to Tropical Cyclone Florence are becoming increasingly likely late this week into early next week," the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C, which forecasts for the western Carolinas including Charlotte, said in a statement Wednesday. "Preparedness measures for flooding rain, landslides in mountainous areas, and gusty winds that could damage trees and power lines should be taken."

Saltwater fishing boats were being towed to safety inland from the coast early Wednesday on U.S. 74 in Whiteville, which is about 50 miles from the shore.

The inland forecasts are still uncertain. But the shift in the storm's expected track would put Charlotte on Florence's "bad" side, to the right of the center of the storm, where wind and rain are most damaging.

"If it does take the more southerly track, of course, it will have an effect on the wind field," said weather service meteorologist Jeffrey Taylor in Greer. "We could get stronger winds as it moves south of the Charlotte area, possibly higher sustained winds."

The National Weather Service's forecast for Charlotte says wind gusts of up to 24 mph are expected Thursday, with windy conditions to linger through Sunday. The chances of rain rise from 20 percent Thursday to 40 percent Friday, 60 percent Saturday and 70 percent Sunday.

Sunday into Monday presents the greatest risk of tornadoes spawned by Florence in the Charlotte region, according to the National Weather Service in Greer.

Because the storm is more than 400 miles wide, its effects will be felt well outside the track forecast, the National Weather Service in Wilmington warned Wednesday.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Florence was 385 miles southeast of Wilmington, packing 120 mph winds and moving northwest at 16 mph. The Category 3 hurricane is expected to slow down considerably as it approaches the Carolinas coast late Thursday and Friday, and move through early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said.

"I think this storm right here is very similar to Hurricane Hugo. It's almost a combination of Hurricane Hugo in '89 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999," Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long -- a Newton native -- said during a FEMA briefing Tuesday with President Trump at the Oval office.

Across the Carolinas, businesses and residents are busily trying to prepare for a looming storm without knowing what the worst impacts will be.

Milk, bread and bottled water disappeared from grocery stores across Charlotte, but stores said they're constantly restocking essential items and supplies such as batteries, toilet paper and propane tanks.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management advised local people to stock emergency kits well with food, water, medications and flashlights with extra batteries, and to gas up their cars well before the storm hits.

Lines for gas have already formed at some gas stations, mostly in coastal communities, ahead of the storm. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina cut supply lines from the Gulf coast, leading to widespread shortages.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools officials are to meet Wednesday morning to decide whether to close schools Thursday or Friday as the storm approaches. CMS rescheduled Friday night football games on Monday.

The online short-term rental site Airbnb offered free temporary lodging to hurricane evacuees and disaster relief workers in the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia.

North Carolina officials said hundreds of inmates from state prisons and county jails in the projected path of Florence were being evacuated to larger facilities.